Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has instructed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to further probe the alleged under-invoicing of Completely Built-Up (CBU) vehicle imports by a “private car company”. The committee demanded a report within a month.
FBR had closed the case after confirming that the reports of under-invoicing were false but has been ordered to reinvestigate the matter by the new regime.
PAC issued this order during a meeting between the committee members and FBR officials on Tuesday. FBR representatives apprised the committee members of the developments regarding the under-invoicing case.
They claimed that the automaker had imported 11,223 vehicles and paid duty at the standard rate, adding that FBR has collected Rs. 36 billion duty on them. PAC chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain told FBR to continue investigating the matter.
Although the report didn’t name anyone, all signs point towards MG. The company underwent a similar investigation last year.
The company had allegedly imported 400 Completely Built-up Units (CBUs) from China and under-invoiced their customs value, inflicting a loss of Rs. 1.1 billion to the national exchequer.
However, as per a report from July 2021, FBR had acquitted Javed Afridi — a key stakeholder of MG Pakistan — from the case. An official statement from the board said that the allegations against MG Pakistan and Javed Afridi were false.
In his recent discussion with ProPakistani, a senior MG official who requested anonymity corroborated this report. He added that MG will soon begin full-scale local assembly of its vehicles and cement its place in Pakistan.